Martin gets on his bike to help ERI after horror accident

Published on Friday 15 May 2009 10:00

WHEN Martin McLindon was flung through the windscreen of a fire engine on its way to an emergency call, it was touch and go whether he would survive.

He was left with multiple fractures and was in a coma for nearly a month. Despite his horrific injuries, however, he has recovered – and completed a 450-mile bike ride to raise funds for the ERI intensive care unit, where his life was saved.

Mr McLindon, 37, and 13 friends have just completed the ride from Edinburgh Castle to Buckingham Palace – the first time any of them have attempted such a trip.

He said: "I don't know which is sorest, my knees or my backside, but it was a fantastic experience, it really was. At the end we all cycled up The Mall together, it was fantastic. We arrived at 7pm at Buckingham Palace and we went straight to the hotel and I think we emptied the hotel of champagne."

The event finally proves that Mr McLindon, who runs a skip hire company, is fully recovered from the injuries he sustained in November 2007.

He explained: "We were up at the racing at Musselburgh and took a few clients up and had a few beers. The fire engine was going to a 999 call – it was a fence fire. I went to go to a cash machine and crossed the road. This fire engine was going at 42mph and I went through the windscreen of it.

"I broke all my ribs, my back, my two lungs collapsed, I broke my collar bones, broke my fingers, fractured my jaw. I basically broke everything from the waist up."

Despite his horrendous injuries, Mr McLindon hated being in hospital so much that he signed himself out after just six weeks and was cared for at home by medical staff, his wife Amrylee, 33, and their friends.

It was a slow recovery, but gradually his rehabilitation turned into something else – a training regime for the epic cycle: "I'm very determined, so my friend would go out and walk with me and I'd do 50 metres and then 100 metres. I never got on a bike until November last year. One of my friends is a cyclist and I think they thought it would help to push myself and get myself fit, and he said 'Why don't we do a cycle ride?'"

They recruited friends to join them, and set off last Friday, arriving in London on Monday. They decided to leave from the Castle because it was where Mr and Mrs McLindon were married.

With a charity ball to be held at Dalziel Park Hotel near Mr McLindon's home town of Motherwell today, the group hopes to raise around 30,000 in total.

The money will be split 50/50 between the ERI and the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, where his son Connaire, nine, has been treated (the youngster was born with a rare health condition). The team hope to repeat the ride next year for two different charities.